NUMURKAH
SECONDARY COLLEGE Email: [email protected] www.numurkahsc.vic.edu.au
Phone: 58621088 Facebook: Numurkah Secondary College
Not for one—but for all
March, 27 2020
Issue 2020—04
In this issue:
Principal’s Report
Dear Parents and Friends,
Thank you all for your tremendous support over the last weeks, we are very proud of our
staff team and of the amazing amount of work they have done to support our sons and
daughters.
We will continue to update families as messages come to us from our regional DET leaders
through the College Facebook, parent emails and through COMPASS.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need support. I am happy to be contacted on
my mobile 0475 505 051 during the holiday break and / or in the event that we have an
extended break from being on-site and learning continues to happen at home.
Stay safe.
Kind regards,
Claire
Claire Kelly Principal
The following National Geographic article explores the strategies used by NASA Astronauts
prior to visiting the International Space Station.
The mandatory two week period of isolation/quarantine/self-isolation prior to departure is
referred to as 'Health Stabilisation'. The article is an interview with astronaut Chris Cassidy
who is about to embark on his third deployment to the ISS.
Chris’ best advice for people who are concerned about managing, in what feels like an
isolating and maybe claustrophobic environment;
Routine!
Routine!
Routine!
Principal’s Report
SPA—Progress Reports Term 1
NSC Athletics Club
Outdoor Ed—Wilson’s Prom
School Uniform
School Photos
BY MICHAEL GRESHKO NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy gazes out the
cupola of the International Space Station in
August 2013, during his stint aboard the
orbiting laboratory as the Expedition 36 flight
engineer.
Chris Cassidy is about to spend six months
on the ISS. He knows a thing or two about
living in a small space.
P U B L I S H E D M A R C H 2 3 , 2 0 2 0
Chris Cassidy is going into quarantine—but for a NASA astronaut preparing to launch to
the International Space Station, that’s just part of the routine. Pandemic or not, NASA
astronauts are always isolated for two weeks before launch to ensure they don't carry any
unwanted bugs to the space station, a process NASA calls "health stabilization." The
space agency also said that it is considering testing Cassidy and his crew members for
COVID-19 before they fly, just to be sure.
On April 9, Cassidy, a U.S. Navy captain and former SEAL, will join cosmonauts Anatoli
Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to launch to the ISS. The trio will
live and work on board the space station for six months as part of Expedition 63, which
Cassidy will command. The voyage will mark Cassidy’s third trip into space, having logged
a total of 182 days in orbit during a 2009 space shuttle flight and a 2013 stay aboard the
ISS.
In a telephone interview from Star City, Russia, where Cassidy is preparing for launch, the
astronaut discussed his upcoming mission—and how a disruption like the COVID-19
pandemic could affect his time in Earth’s orbiting laboratory. (This interview has been
edited for length and clarity.)
This will be the first time that you've been back to the International Space Station since
2013. What are you most looking forward to about returning?
I'm really looking forward to seeing familiar faces—floating through the hatch and seeing
Drew and Jessica [NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir] and giving them a
big hug. That's a great moment. Those emotions, if you see them on TV—the smiles and
the laughing—are real. We're friends, colleagues, and co-workers, but also we're humans
who are experiencing something super cool together. That first couple hours, I can't wait
to experience that.
Of course, looking out the window is always fantastic, but we'll have limited handover
time [before Morgan and Meir return to Earth], so I just want to soak up their experience
for that week before they disappear on me a few days later.
I have to imagine that now is a fairly unusual time to be preparing for launch, given the
COVID-19 pandemic. What kinds of challenges has that posed to you and your
colleagues?
Interestingly enough, the preparation has been no different, and the quarantine for us as
crewmembers has been very similar to what I'm used to for quarantine. The real weird
P H O T O G R A P H B Y N A S A
part is everybody else also being in quarantine. The social distancing concept is not just
pertaining to the three crewmembers, but it's everybody.
The other part that's not so operational, but more on the support side, is trying to navigate
through all the uncertainties of which people will get to come to launch: friends, family,
NASA support personnel. All that kind of stuff has been quite dynamic, as I'm sure you've
been experiencing in your own life over the last seven days.
Social distancing is requiring many people to work from home for the first time. The ISS is
arguably the most extreme work-from-home environment on or around Earth. Any advice
for people?
Well, setting a routine, I think, is the biggest thing. We have no choice in that matter; the
mission control folks tell us what that routine is going to be. But I have experienced that in
the military on deployment. There were times on my Navy deployments where I had a lull
in operational activity, and we found that it was really healthy for the group to stay in
some sort of normal routine.
If everybody just kind of lounges around and doesn't get up until 11:00, and nobody's
brushing their hair or their teeth, not only do you look crappy and you feel crappy, but
you just get in that funk. So sticking to a Monday-through-Friday routine is probably the
most basic thing that I would recommend to folks.
Given that you're going to be up on the ISS until October, what’s going through your
mind? How are you going to deal with the separation from events on the surface?
In all likelihood, I'll come back to Earth in October, and knock on wood, the pandemic will
be kind of behind us, and people will start trying to get back to normal existence, much
like in the months after 9/11. It took some time, but eventually, life returned to semi-
normal, or a new defined normal.
It’ll be this whole spring and summer that will be really interesting for me. I'll be super busy,
of course. I'll be mostly by myself on the space station and hopefully welcoming my
colleagues Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, from the SpaceX [Crew Dragon] mission. So I
will have a full plate, and my mind will be engaged, but I'm still going to be talking,
communicating, and emailing with my family and loved ones and friends. I'll be living
vicariously through them.
I certainly am not going to be disengaged from it and think, Oh, it's not my problem. It's
certainly my problem because my family is living it, and my friends and my co-workers are
living it in real time.
COMPASS NSC Student Performance Assessment - Progress Reports for Term1 are now available on
Compass. Please refer to the attached Student Performance Assessment Criteria
document - SPA.PDF for an explanation of the scores. This document can also be found in
the School Documentation Reports folder. Janice Matthews Teacher and Compass System Administrator
A few weekends ago, we had a dedicated group of students from the NSC Athletics team
compete in the 5km Numurkah Fun Run. As a group, we entered two teams, one male and
one female
The female team—which consisted of Sian Lomax-Davie, Renae Russo,
Jorjiah Moody, and Charlie Payne—did an amazing job and, with their
average time, finished 6th in the team event. Well done, girls!
For the male team we had Kane Newby, Dylan Craven, Jack
Millen, Judah Moody, Ryan Russo, Taihla Harris, Darby Salter, and
myself running. With the quickest team average for the 5km event
(taken from the four quickest runners), we managed to beat all
other teams from across the region to place first. Well done, fellas!
Thank you to all the staff, parents, and guardians who came down on the day to support
our runners! I hope you felt the energetic vibe of our students and left inspired (they
certainly did). Also, a number of other students from the school competed on the day,
including Thomas Masters (who came 2nd in his 10k event), Summer Storer, and Jesse
Powlesland. Well done! I strongly encourage you to join NSC Athletics!
Over the holidays, Ms Bock and I will be running a
number of exercise and running programs for
students who are interested in staying fit and
healthy. Looking at our activity this week, we have
collectively run 115km so far. If you're interested in
joining these programs, please join our NSC Athletics
group on Messenger via this link: messenger.com/
t/2514729415312563 (parents and guardians
welcome!)
Stay healthy!
Chris Deitch, Teacher & VCE Co-Leader
NSC Athletics
On the 10th of March, the Unit 3 Outdoor
Education class headed down to
Wilson's Prom for their first camp of the
year. We were lucky to have three
perfect days of weather to compliment
the amazing terrain we walked along.
Day 1 was an extremely early start,
which had us arrive at the prom around
12 pm. We walked on the first day from
Telegraph Saddle to Oberon Bay, where
we camped for the night. The second
day of walking followed the coast back
to Tidal River campsite, which the
students smashed out in great time. We
then had some free time to swim, tidy up
and get ready for the evenings activity, a screening of the Australian movie Go at the outdoor
cinema. The last day had us attending an education session with Parks Victoria, exploring the past
uses of the Wilson's Prom environment. The students were fantastic on the camp and should be
congratulated for the way they represented our school and followed the guidelines of camping in
the Prom. A special thanks to Miss Gierveld and Mr Deitch who attended as support staff.
Andrew Nicholls, OE/PE Teacher
Outdoor Ed—Wilson’s Prom.
SCHOOL UNIFORM McPhersons Numurkah have reduced trading hours to 9am to 1pm Monday to Friday and
9am to noon Saturdays until further notice.
Please contact Duncan 0408 621 061 or Chris 0407 095 948 to arrange an appointment or
a pick up point for your convenience outside of these hours.
Stay healthy, safe and happy
Duncan McPherson
CHECK NEWSLETTER ITEMS IN C SIGLEY MAILBOX—CASSIE WILLIS ARTICLE FOR WHEN WE GO IN TO LOCK-DOWN.
PLEASE NOTE: New date for NSC
school photo day is Mon 15th June.